The Student news source for West Shore Junior/Senior High School

The Roar

The Student news source for West Shore Junior/Senior High School

The Roar

The Student news source for West Shore Junior/Senior High School

The Roar

Krehbiel, Vigil reach U.S. Physics Team semifinals

Seniors Karl Krehbiel and Anthony Vigil have been named as two of the top 350 students nationally to reach the semifinal round of the U.S. Physics Team competition. The pair qualified as a result of January’s first-round competition in which approximately 3,000 students participated. 

The next competition — scheduled for later this month — will be used as the basis for the selection of the 20 members of the U.S. Physics Team. In May, those students will travel from schools throughout the United States to the University of Maryland-College Park for the U.S. Physics Team Training Camp where they will engage in nine days of intense studying, mystery lab, daily exams and problem-solving.

At the end of that training camp, five students and an alternate will be selected as the Traveling Team to represent the United States at the International Physics Olympiad in Bangkok, Thailand in July.

While the semifinal-round selection is a first for Vigil, Krehbiel has reached that level for a third consecutive year. Both have taken two years of AP Physics which includes AP Physics B, AP Physics C- Mechanics and AP Physics C – Electricity and Magnetism. Their physics and general academic strength have been noticed by the top science and engineering schools in the nation. As a result, Vigil already has been admitted to and plans to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology next year and, while Krehbiel has been admitted to M.I.T. and to the California Institute of Technology, he currently remains undecided. 

Krehbiel and Vigil also are members of the school’s varsity physics team which will be competing later this year in the 2011 U.S. Physics Bowl. Last year, West Shore’s team placed first in the Southeast Region — which includes Florida, Georgia and South Carolina — at U.S. Physics Bowl. The team is coached by John Krehbiel, who teaches physics and coaches boys’ soccer.

Roar Staff report

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